i am certainly not trying to make any comparisons, but for the record, the elefant has always been in my mind one of the most ahead of its time and underrated bikes ever.

the terra mostro is a very cool concept indeed, i feel it is taking up where the elefant was dropped off, as cool as the fant is, chassis parts arent getting easier to find. if the terra mostro is anything close to the fants overall performance and handling it will be a winner for sure, and being built on the very popular and easy to get parts monster is only fuel for the fire. thumbs up

p.s. i put my fant on a landscape scale, the drive-on kind for rocks and such and in its everyday trim it weighs a youthful 418lbs, pretty dang good for what it is i think.

The forward mounted Axel reduces trail by about 1 1/2". Unless the triple clamp offset or the steering head angle is changed it seems like it would be really twitchy, especially in sand or mud where the tire sinking into the surface reduces trail even more. It's a great concept but I would sure want to ride one first.

The forward mounted Axel reduces trail by about 1 1/2". Unless the triple clamp offset or the steering head angle is changed it seems like it would be really twitchy, especially in sand or mud where the tire sinking into the surface reduces trail even more. It's a great concept but I would sure want to ride one first.

correct, however there are some other things to take into account as well:

larger diameter front wheels (21 vs 17), all else being equal, will increase trail. throw some head angle change into the mix, and the trail numbers might get even fuzzier.

on a related note, how come so few of these people who convert dirt bikes to supermoto use complain about how the bikes end up with hardly any trail compared to their stock 18/21 configuration? some of the ones i've ridden get real squirrely braking hard into turns on pavement...

Met Blaine and his buddy at a hamburger joint in Bridgeport on 395, Sunday. He was riding a test mule 750 Monster checking the fork set up. That bike looked the part of a serious dual sport. Lots of ground clearance, monster forks yet with a seat height substantially less than the KTM 950 sitting next to it.
Told me that there should be some major magazine coverage on the 695 shortly and confirms the $16,000 price.
Camera in my pocket and didn't think to take a picture, so maybe it didn't happen .